53. Notes that palliative care for terminally ill cancer patients varies in quality between Member States and can benefit from exchange of good practices and therefore calls on the Commission and Member States to encourage and promote palliative care and to establish guidelines for its use;

This should take the form both of systematic care and advice for families facing arduous long-term care in the home, as well as a system of accessible specialised facilities providing expert and above all humane care for patients in the final stages of this disease.

53. Notes that palliative care for terminally ill cancer patients varies in quality between Member States and can benefit from exchange of good practices and therefore calls on the Commission and Member States to encourage and promote palliative care and to establish guidelines for its use;

They improve the quality of life of patients, are often the most cost-effective treatment, and sometimes only way to treat liver, lung and heart failure.

Through earlier diagnosis and intervention it may be possible to delay late-stage progression of the diseases and thus postpone institutionalisation, thereby reducing the high cost of terminal (long-term) care.

Quality, efficiency and solidarity of health care systems including transitional health care systems and home-care strategies: to translate effective interventions into management decisions, to assess the cost, efficiency and benefits of different interventions including with regard to patient safety, to define the needs and conditions for an adequate supply of human resources, to analyse factors influencing equity of access to high-quality health care (also by disadvantaged groups), including analyses of changes in population (e.g. ageing, mobility and migration, and the changing workplace).